Analysts and investors will be looking forward to the next earnings release from Cray Inc (NASDAQ:CRAY) which is scheduled to be on or around 2017-02-09 for the period ending 2016-12-31. Covering sell-side analysts have a current quarter earnings per share estimate of $1.25. In the same quarter last year, the company posted EPS of $0.72.

Whether or not the company meets or beats this expectation, along with other factors, can often dictate where the share price might be headed in the near-term. Leading up to the release it’s also important to take note of the direction the estimates are headed as analyst revisions can often give an idea of Street sentiment on expected performance.

Most recently, Cray Inc (NASDAQ:CRAY) posted actual earnings of $-0.56 per share against the $-0.33 Zacks consensus estimate. This represents a surprise factor of -69.7% or a difference of $-0.23. There are currently 5 brokerage firms covering Cray Inc, offering earnings per share estimates as well as future price target projections. On a consensus basis, analysts have pinned a $30.2 mean target price for the short term on the stock. The most lofty price projection sees the stock reaching $49 within the year, while the most conservative has a $18 target on the name. In looking at the standard deviation of all estimates, we arrive at 11.519.

Zacks provides a simpler approach for understanding analyst recommendations on stocks, using an integer based system which converts each recommendation into a 1-5 average, where 1 represents a Strong Buy and 5 a Strong Sell. Compiling all of the recommendations for the firm, Cray Inc (NASDAQ:CRAY) current has a mean recommendation of 1.6. Breaking those down we see that the ratings are as follows: 3 Strong Buy, 1 Rated Buy, 1 Rated Hold and 0 Rated Sell.

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Analyst recommendations and estimates are for informational purposes only and should be used along with a number of other factors when considering an investment position. Part of the data in this report is derived from Zacks Research and FactSet. Ratings and estimates change daily and thus the numbers may differ slightly if a new report has been issued within the last 24-hours. The consensus numbers take into account the reports from over 160 brokerage firms. The job of analysts is to issue recommendations for their clients, and not typically for the general public. Analyst forecasts, earnings estimates and price target projections are issued to help their clients make money through stock investments. We in no way are suggesting that readers make any decision on Cray Inc (NASDAQ:CRAY) based on the information in this report.